Just posted this in an old thread… no one is going to see it… my grandma passed away… so I had to clean out her house… got to the liquor cab… found the regular…rum, gin, vodka, scotch, whiskey… and this bottle… scary looking. Clear, no date or % on it… just a lable… Alpa Francovka… did a google search… they make aftershave and skin cream… and stuff to put on sore muscles… but it was in her liquor cab. The smell… easily 100 proof or more…was gma just an alky? Or is this some long lost and happily forgotten bottle of liquor from a long lost era?
Gonna check in hourly…seriously wanna know
Embrocation - don’t drink it - rub it on.
A quick search gave me this:
It’s some kind of Czech herbal tincture or tonic. People use it for all sorts of stuff including rubbing on muscles and such. But there are drink recipes for it as well.
*Alpa Francovka is an inexpensive tonic of sorts. Found in drugstores and supermarkets everywhere, its used by Czechs for everything from sweaty feet to toothaches. It’s also favored by students and the less fortunate for its alcoholic properties.
*
I’ve heard it taste absolutely terrible!
Thanks for the info… it smells like camp fuel… just wondering why it was in the liquor cabinet… 
Even the drink recipes look/sound terrible.
Sounds like this stuff has already been immortalised in song
It was in the liquor cabinet, huh? Hmm, what did she die of?
When gram was feeling arthritic, she liked to rub the stuff on her aching joints. She also liked to take a little nip to speed things along. This saved her a separate trip.
Just want to say, that if she had a liquor cabinet crammed with all sorts of stuff, that shows she wasn’t an alcoholic.
You want to know what an alcoholic’s liquor cabinet looks like? Empty.
In current production, it appears to be made with denatured alcohol. Denatured alcohol is not potable, by design. Often they add methanol, which can blind or kill you. According to the Czech wikipedia page, it’s “60% denaturovaný Ethanol (denaturační činidlo neuvedeno)” which apparently means “60% denatured ethyl alcohol (denaturant not specified).”
It’s entirely possible that decades ago they used ethyl alcohol without a denaturant and it was perfectly safe to drink, even if it doesn’t sound very appetizing. I wouln’t take a chance though.
It used to be not uncommon to sell booze as a “lineament” or the like, to get around alcohol laws (prohibiting it or taxing it or whatever). Maybe some people really did rub it on sore muscles, but I’d be surprised if that was the actual primary use.
Now if it had been Becherovka, we’d be asking for invites.
I do love me some Becherovka. 
She may have kept it in the liquor cabinet because that’s where all the stuff the kids don’t get to drink gets stored.